Homework Reading Journals
By Jonathan Lam on 02/04/16
Tagged: the-homework-life the-homework-life-thought
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Wow. That was the most un-creative title I've fabricated in the past few years. I've got to work on that. But I'm tired right now, and it is appropriate for the rather dull task the assignment entails. These are all in response to homework reading journals for Catcher in the Rye.
A Narrator / Character Thing
When Holden says, "I'm quite illiterate, but I read a lot" (18), I was intrigued. It sounds like a silly thing to say— how can you be a well-read and ignorant person? But I thought it was really a moment of the narrator talking. Holden notices, but he didn't really feel. He points out two thoughts blindly: he is illiterate, and he likes to read. In a normal context, they would be one and the same, and that kind of paradox does not exist often. However, in Holden's case, they are two things, in the literal sense. He does not notice the connection between the two, and he simply restates that he acts childish and is not very smart— the "illiterate"— and that he likes to read— the "I read a lot".
A SELF Thing
Holden says that Stradlater "was a very sexy bastard" (32), a comment that challenges the idea of Stradlater's ego. Holden pointed out often Stradlater's fake-ness because of his "damn good build"— however, looks are looks are looks, and they shouldn't interfere with personality. If not for his personality, would his great looks alone have changed the way Holden thought of him? I believe that the idea of self is too-much altered by our looks: Stradlater is "sexy," and acts in the selfish, snobby way that matches his looks. Ackley, on the other hand, is the opposite: he's a snob both on the inside and the outside. Holden doesn't really focus on his looks so much, and he doesn't focus much on his personality, either. I thought this was very interesting.
A YOU Thing
I really don't understand how Holden can simply leave Pencey Prep like that. It is a place he knows, a place that he should feel that he belongs to— but he doesn't. He doesn't care about it like he doesn't care about his entire crumby life. Out of spite and anger, he simply yells, "Sleep tight, ya morons!" (52) and left via taxi— in addition, he left not to his parents to tell them what happens, but to a hotel to hide away. I found this extremely ridiculous and senseless: how does he live with himself? Has he no sense and morals? I am a clingy person who gets to know things slowly and doesn't let go for a long time; I cannot simply leave so quickly and rashly. How and why does he do it?
An ITSY-BITSY Thing
One humorous line I found was when Holden was outrightedly lying to Morrow's mother and hearing her phony responses: "Sensitive. That killed me. That guy Morrow was about as sensitive as a goddam toilet seat" (55). In his voice and personality, when he accuses others of phoniness, it sounds as though it actually is killing him. As if he is the dramatic, phony one that is dying right there, because of that. Even stranger is how he continued to converse with her, even though he was implying how Morrow was actually "the biggest bastard that ever went to Pencey" (54) in undertones. It's just paradoxical how he's cursing the mother for being phony when he himself is lying, which is what I would consider even more phony.